Thanksgiving oven schedule

Beef Wellington Christmas dinner timeline

Short answer: make the duxelles up to 3 days ahead and wrap the Wellington up to 24 hours before it bakes, then bake it straight from the fridge. For a 6 PM dinner, a seared Wellington at 425 °F goes in at 5:15 PM and comes out at 5:45 PM. The no-sear version at 450 °F goes in at 4:30 PM, because it bakes 45 minutes and then rests 45 before slicing.

Most of a Wellington is cold work: mushrooms cooked down, beef seared and chilled, pastry rolled around both. That work moves to the days before Christmas, and the dinner day keeps one bake of under an hour. Pick a method and a dinner time to get both halves of the plan with clock times.

What the make-ahead limits rest on

• Wrapping ahead: Nigella's answer on Wellington and time management says the whole thing "can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance and baked from fully chilled". It says to cool the seared beef until just warm, then refrigerate it for 2 to 3 hours before wrapping, so warm beef doesn't make the pastry greasy, and to brush on the egg wash just before baking.
• Duxelles: America's Test Kitchen's updated Wellington keeps the cooled duxelles in the fridge for up to 3 days. Its finished roast can also wait in the fridge "for up to 24 hours", the same limit as Nigella's.
• The make-ahead plan above wraps 22 hours before the bake and sears 3 hours before wrapping. Both are my choices, kept inside those limits with room for a dinner that runs late.
• Chill after wrapping: JUSTIN Vineyards' Wellington chills the wrapped roast for "at least 1 hour and up to one day". The same-day plan below uses that hour.

Can it all happen on Christmas Day?

With the seared method and a 6:00 PM dinner, yes, if the beef is seared by 2:15 PM. That leaves the short end of Nigella's chill, 2 hours, before you wrap at 4:15 PM, and 1 hour in the fridge before the Wellington goes in at 5:15 PM. The duxelles has to be cooked and cold before the wrap too. The no-sear method can't be squeezed into one day: its beef is salted at least 12 hours before wrapping, and the homemade pastry chills at least 8 hours.

Two bake methods, two different ovens

• Sur La Table's Wellington sears a 2 lb center-cut tenderloin, chills it, wraps it and bakes at 425 °F for "about 30 minutes" until the beef reads 115 °F for medium-rare. The plan checks at 25 minutes (my choice) and uses the long end of the 10 to 15 minute rest. At 425 °F the oven suits roast vegetables, so the potatoes and carrots bake beside the Wellington.
• America's Test Kitchen skips the sear. The 3 lb roast bakes at 450 °F for 40 to 45 minutes and comes out at only 85 °F, then rests uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes while carryover takes it to 130 °F. The oven belongs to the Wellington while it bakes, but the long rest frees it. After the 15 minute change to 350 °F there are 30 minutes left, enough for the 20 minute dinner rolls and too short for a 35 minute green bean casserole, so the plan moves the potatoes to the stovetop as mashed potatoes.

Both plans let the Wellington wait 10 minutes past its rest at most, my assumption, because the pastry softens as it sits.

Pull temperatures and the USDA minimum

A probe pushed in through the side of the pastry tells you when to pull the Wellington. The recipes disagree on the number. The beef keeps cooking inside the pastry after it leaves the oven, and how far it climbs depends on the method and the rest:

• The USDA's safe minimum for whole cuts of beef is 145 °F followed by a 3 minute rest (the FSIS safe temperature chart, which blocks my fetches). University of Minnesota Extension's safe temperature table, which I did open, lists the same 145 °F and 3 minutes for whole cuts of beef. All the medium-rare figures above finish below 145 °F, and Nigella's medium reaches it at the top of its range.
• Nigella gives medium as 60–65 °C (140–145 °F) and says to remove the Wellington "about 5c" below that. Her page prints 20 °F next to it; 5 °C is a 9 °F difference.
• Sur La Table pulls at 115 °F and gives no finishing figure. JUSTIN pulls at 120 °F and lists 125 °F after about 15 minutes of rest.

Wrap and bake times by dinner time

"Wrap from" is the earliest the wrapped Wellington can go into the fridge, 24 hours before the seared one bakes. The no-sear Wellington goes in earlier, so its wrap window opens earlier too.

Wellington or a plain roast tenderloin

A Wellington starts from the same cut as a roast tenderloin, and the pastry changes the schedule. It moves the work to the days before and caps the bake at under an hour. A bare tenderloin roasts at 425 °F by the pound and can be bought, tied and roasted on the day. The Christmas beef tenderloin timeline has its times by weight, how much to buy per person and a reverse sear.

More Christmas oven timing

• Christmas prime rib and Yorkshire pudding timeline: a bone-in roast that holds the oven for hours.
• Christmas ham dinner timeline: a fully cooked ham at 325 °F, glaze and sides.
• Roast goose Christmas timeline, by goose weight.
• Christmas morning casserole and cinnamon rolls in one oven.
• The oven schedule planner for any other menu.